Oral Presentation by Nicolas Grevesse¹, Edina Dóci²
¹ UCLouvain (site of Saint-Louis, Brussels), Belgium ² UCLouvain, Belgium
TIME: Tuesday, 14 July, 10:30 – 12:00
Location: Room 2
Session: 2
Abstract
Considered “one of the greatest ecological and social challenges of the twenty-first century” (Dietz et al., 2020, p. 135), the environmental crisis is deeply entrenched in capitalism and its exploitative dynamics. Since the late 1960s, environmental activism has increasingly sought to address this issue by raising public awareness and exerting political pressure (Rootes, 2022), grounding its legitimacy in a firm rejection of violence within its action repertoire (Malm, 2020). However, as the crisis continues to escalate, and after nearly sixty years of relentless mobilisation yet limited hard-won victories and no systemic change (Thiri et al., 2022), some scholars and activists have begun to question the pacifist stance prevailing within the movement, instead advocating for the adoption of more radical forms of protest (Simpson et al., 2022). At this pivotal point is situated “Les Soulèvements de la Terre”, a French environmental collective that mobilises against (agro-)industrial development projects and embraces a plurality of tactics in its action repertoire, including confrontational ones. In this regard, the collective embodies the contradictions of a movement that has long privileged non-violent praxis (Butler, 2020), yet whose claims may not be fully acknowledged without the pressure exerted by a more radical flank (Malm, 2020; Simpson et al., 2022). Through the case of Les Soulèvements de la Terre, we aim to discuss the normative understandings of violence, as well as the related violence-nonviolence dichotomy that prevails within environmental activism and social movement studies (Uysal et al., 2024). Based on a literature review in psychology of liberation, conflict psychology and social movement studies, a documentary analysis, as well as preliminary interviews, we also seek to provide a better understanding of violent and nonviolent praxis as a means of resistance in increasingly repressive settings. To that end, we will focus primarily on how activists experience and interpret the violence they encounter, as well as the counter-violence they may – or may not – respond with, and how such meaning-making processes may contribute to shaping the movement’s identity and enhancing individuals’ well-being and sense of agency.